A Night of Firsts

It was a special night at the clubs most recent meeting as five of the club newer members took on new roles for the first time. Breda Forrest and Deirdre Linehan gave excellent evaluations on two fellow toastmasters’ speeches. Helsa Giles as Topics master had the members thinking and speaking on our feet with a very entertaining Christmas themed topics session. David Frawley kept the meeting on track in his role as timekeeper and Brendan Foley delivered a very polished General Evaluator session.

The meeting included four very interesting speeches. Marie Lynes gave a very educational speech on symbols. She told us what the background among others of the harp emblem and the poppy. Liam Flynn on the recent passing of Nelson Mandela gave a speech toasting ‘The King of Africa’.

Anne O’Donovan gave a speech that left the audience feeling she was working for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Her powerful description without the use of notes of her recent wee trip to Belfast had the audience feeling that it is a trip that would have to be taken. Claire O’Connell in her own unique way told us how people could legally go about not paying the water charge.

The clubs next meeting will be the clubs first meeting of 2014 meeting which will take place on this Thursday the 9th January. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
(In the photograph from left David Frawley, Deirdre Linehan, Helsa Giles, Breda Forrest and Brendan
Foley)

New Local Short Story

New Local Short Story

At the clubs last meeting toastmaster Bridie O’Connell read a story from a recently published book of short stories by local Doneraile based author Bridget O’Hanlon. The book is titled ’Widowhood Flying’ and the chosen story was ’Eyrie’. Bridie did a wonderful job in bringing the story to life and making the audience feel as they were part of the story.

David Frawley had the room full of laughter by telling us about how he and his friends found jobs in USA while on their summer J1 student visas. They all applied and got accepted for jobs as golf caddies even though they had very little knowledge of the game. David recounted some very funny stories as to how they managed to survive in their jobs for the summer.

The final speaker of the evening was a visiting toastmaster from the Crusaders Club in Cork city. Michael Buckley gave a very informative speech on the events that took place around the death of Princess Diana of Wales. He focussed on the many aspects of what happened before and after the accident. By the end of his speech he had given us all new information and the audience minds were pondering all the theories throughout the tea break.

The clubs next meeting will be our Christmas meeting which will take place on this Thursday the 12th December. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

A Very Busy Meeting

SPEAKEASY TOASTMASTERS

A Very Busy Meeting

Marie Lyons took it all in her stride as she chaired one of the clubs busiest meetings with six speeches delivered on the night. She also made time for David Roche to conduct a very interesting topics session which had members thinking and speaking on their feet. This was David’s first time doing the role and he had a wide variation of topics from JFK to trade unions.

The first speech on the night was delivered by Brendan Foley. It was a very informative and educational regarding the month of November. He challenged us to think of the month not a dreary one, but a time for reflection as our ancestors used to treat it. Two of the other speeches on the night had a somewhat common theme. Helsa Giles gave us a demonstration on how to make a coffee cake, but not alone that, she brought a sample for everyone to enjoy at the tea break. The members are now hoping that all of Helsa’s future speeches will be about different types of cakes.

Mary Moynihan speech titled “The Daily Grind” presented all the different information regarding what was the maximum amount of coffee that a person should consume in a day. In her very entertaining way she let us know that there was no possible way she could function on the five hundred ml’s that some of the research was suggesting as the maximum daily intake. More information on the other three speakers next week.

The clubs next meeting will be our Christmas meeting which will take place on Thursday 12th December. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Sensational Schools Contest

Fourteen Transition Year students from seven different schools took part in this years Schools Contest. The standard was extremely high and the judges had a very difficult task in picking a winner. Dan Webb from Nagle Rice in Doneraile won the best speaker prize with Meave Murphy from St Mary’s Charleville in second place and Carmel O’Leary also from St Mary’s in third. Best School prize also went to St Mary’s Charleville. The club would sincerely like to thank all the contestants, teachers and parents for all their effort in making such a wonderful night possible. Thanks on the night were also extended to the sponsors, Mallow Credit Union, The Hibernian Hotel and Division A of Toastmasters.

At the clubs last meeting the audience were also treated to three very entertaining speeches. James Kelleher told us about a round of golf he had that did not go according to plan. Deirdre Linehan after an absence of a number of years from the club arrived back in style with a very funny speech about becoming a grandmother. Our last speaker of the evening was Brian McLoughlin from the Mullingar Club which a speech titled “The idiots guide to getting the ring on the finger”.

This Thursday the 28th November the club will have its next meeting with a great selection of speakers appearing on the program. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Nice'n Easy Members visit Speak Easy

Very special guests

It was a special occasion for the club last Thursday night as we were privileged to have two guest speakers from the Nice and Easy toastmasters club. This club is based in the Cope Foundation in Mallow and over the years it has always sent excellent speakers to the Speakeasy Club.

The two speakers on this occasion were Patrica Coleman and Michael Broderick. Patrica gave us a very informative and educational speech on the history of Buttevant town. It was a speech that was very well researched and rehearsed and was complimented on this by her evaluator Marie Lyons. Michael gave a very appropriate speech for the time of the year as he gave us his reflections on an autumn scene and also added that it will not be long before we get to enjoy spring again. Tony O’Regan gave Michael a very helpful evaluation. The club president thanked toastmaster Jerry Mulcahy who helped the two speakers prepare for the meeting.

The club will host a special event on this Thursday the 21st of November in the Hibernian Hotel. It is the annual Schools Public Speaking Contest, which will have transition year students from local schools taking part. The contest will begin at 8pm and finish at 10pm. Admission is free and everybody is welcome to attend.

The following Thursday on the 28th November the club will have its own meeting with a great selection of speakers appearing on the program. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Gearing Up for Schools Contest

Club gears up for Schools Contest

This years Speakeasy Schools public speaking contest takes place on Thursday 21st November. It gives transition year students from local schools the opportunity to speak at the club. The contest is again sponsored by Mallow Credit Union and is also supported by the Hibernian Hotel. Every year the members of the club are always impressed with the high standard of speeches.

At our last meeting four of the clubs experienced members also gave speeches. Marie Fitzpatrick speech entitled ‘Diffusing Criticism’ was very interesting as it included the speech, some role play and a questions and answers session. Anne Walsh giving her first club evaluation gave Marie a thorough and helpful evaluation. Michael Cronin followed with a entertaining speech on reading at Mass. James Kelleher evaluated the speech.

Angela Sheehan then completed a toastmasters project which involved ’Presenting an award’. Angela used the opportunity to present an award which was given by Toastmasters World Headquarters to last years President and committee for their great work during the year. Claire O’Connell evaluated the speech. Our final speaker of the night was Pat Sexton fresh from his soapbox completion win at Mallow Library. He gave a very entertaining speech about all the biography’s that will appear coming up to Christmas. He questioned as to how people in their twenties could publish one and the quality of others as it seems they are just trying to cash in. Noel O’Connor evaluated Pats speech.

Bridie O’Connell as Topicsmaster hosted a very lively session with a varied selection of topics. Bill Martin as General Evaluator brought the meeting to a close. The clubs next meeting takes place on this Thursday night the 14th at 8pm in the Hibernian hotel. Everybody is welcome to attend and guests will not be asked to speak. Follow the club on Facebook and Twitter or check out our website at www.speakeasytoastmasters.com.

Newer members shine.

The clubs newer members have greatly added to our meetings in the recent past. At our previous meeting David Frawley gave an excellent first speech at the club which created a great atmosphere for the rest of the meeting. The clubs last meeting included two members who gave their second club speech and they were both very impressive.
First to speak was Breda Forrest with a very informative speech about feminism. Not only did she get the message of her speech across to the audience, she did it in a way which was very entertaining and had the audience laughing on a regular basis. Cait Murray gave Breda an excellent motivating evaluation on her speech which included some helpful tips for her future speeches.
David Roche gave a very appropriate speech for the time of the year. He spoke about while on holiday in France that he visited a number of War cemeteries. It was a very moving account which a great impact on the audience. His final line was a quotation written at one of the cemeteries which stated ‘Time will not dim the glory of their deeds’. His evaluator jerry Mulcahy thanked him sincerely for reminding us again of the sacrifices made by the people at that time.
There were four other speeches on the night and information on those will follow next week. Also the Club President Noel O’Connor congratulated Rona Coghlan on her participation in the Division A final recently and also to Liam Flynn and Pat Sexton who competed in the soapbox speech contest in Mallow. Well done again to Pat on winning and we wish him the best in the next round.
The clubs next meeting will take place on Thursday 14th November in the Hibernian Hotel at 8pm. everybody is welcome to attend and guests will not be asked to speak.

"Bulls and Middle Class Climbers"....Humorous Speech Contest

The annual Speakeasy Toastmasters humorous speech contest drew a large attendance of both guests and members to the Hibernian hotel last Thursday night. As usual there was a high standard of speeches on display and the competition was keen. Liam Flynn gave a fascinating story of how he successfully turned a sow’s ear into a silk purse. While strolling through the stalls in Castletownroche his astute wheeling and dealing led him to a nice little profit. He returned home with a valuable silk purse having started out that morning with nothing more than a plastic sow’s ear that even his dog had refused to play with.

The purchase of a prize bull by Rona Coughlan’s mother gave Rona great material for her speech and gave the audience ample hearty laughs. It appears that even though this bull jumped out of the trailer in a blaze of glory, when he was confronted by a herd of cows he only wanted to “moo-ve” back to where he came from. In truth this was a speech full of “gay-ety”.

Brendan Foley enthralled the audience with his account of a return journey to Dublin after 18 months spent touring the World. What he expected to be a two hour stopover in Los Angeles airport turned into twelve hours of torture without sleep, food, or drink. Even the beggar man outside the door had more money in his box than Brendan had in his pocket. However the whole experience wasn’t wasted after he crafted the tale into belly aching laugh-a-ton for the contest.

The theme for a speech can come from the most unlikely of sources as demonstrated by Claire O Connell in her speech about “Middle Class Climbers”. Having studied the behaviour of these creatures at her local “posh” bar she demonstrated her ability to entertain an audience with the most unlikely of subjects.

In the topics contest on the night all six speakers had two minutes to discuss the success of the Tidy Towns Competition in cleaning up our country. The consensus was that we have cleaned up our act but there were some weaknesses highlighted. The condition of our streets at 3am on a Sunday morning and the ugly habit of fly tipping our rubbish on the quiet country roadsides were of particular concern.

At the conclusion of a great night’s entertainment the plaudits went to Rona Coughlan in the Speech contest and Pat Sexton in the topics contest.

Contact Noel 087 2427485 or Cáit on 087 2185178

Follow us on Facebook ‘Speak Easy Toastmasters’, on Twitter @speakeasytm, our blog http:speakeasytm.blogspot or our website www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

The future of Seanad Éireann came in for some robust discussion at the Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting last week. In fact, the debate went back to the carry on in this eminent chamber some 70 years ago which caused quite a few feathers to be ruffled in Thursday night’s audience. A few other people suffered the wrath of some of the members during what was a hearty topics session led by Marie Lyons. Such people as Bob Geldof and Tony Blair got dishonourable mention. But, as General Evaluator, Margaret O’Regan put it, a number of people managed to get some baggage off their chest on the night and must have gone home feeling somewhat relieved.

On the night, the speeches were the real entertainment. Bill Martin gave the audience a loving account of how baby Fionn was born at home. But, the real twist to the story was what happened to the cat. Anne Walsh in her speech clearly demonstrated the importance of “slow down, you move too fast”, when speaking of road safety. The lyrics of this famous song added poignancy to her tale of a young boy who was knocked down in a serious car accident a number of years ago. James Kelleher, in his speech, took on the thorny subject of man flu, or in his words, “masculine influenza”. A topic, which didn’t get an excessive lot of sympathy from the female half of the house. However, according to James, this is a serious illness that can affect the male of the species and must be treated with TLC. With the next meeting being the humorous speech contest night, Liam Flynn’s educational session was timely, he spoke of the key elements in delivering a good speech. They are; body language, confidence, hand gestures, voice and above all, eye contact. Good advice from Liam for anyone competing in two weeks’ time. Helsa Giles delivered the most pain free beheading that was ever seen at a toastmasters meeting when she spoke of the swordsman who swiftly removed the head of Ann Boleyn. Helsa’s speech was an interesting historic account of the ill-fated Ann and her sister Mary. Cáit Murray was toastmaster for the evening and Cáit in her relaxed and good humoured way ensured the proceeding's were run. The next Speakeasy meeting is 3rd October and promises to be particularly lively as it is the club’s humorous speech and table topics contests. The meeting commences at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel. Guests are most welcome.

President; Noel O'Connor
Secretary; Ray Ryan
Educational Vice President; Cáit Murray
Treasurer; Marie Lynes
Vice President Membership; Angela Sheehan
Immediate Past President;Jerry Mulcahy

Contact Noel 087 2427485 or Cáit on 087 2185178

Follow us on Facebook ‘Speak Easy Toastmasters’, on Twitter @speakeasytm, our blog http:speakeasytm.blogspot or our website www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Enjoyable night at first meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters

Enjoyable night at first meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters

Speakeasy Toastmasters held its first meeting of the new 2013-14 season on last Thursday night 5th September. An energetic meeting with great speeches and engaging topics.

Marie Fitzpatrick was a delightful, warm, witty and encouraging Toastmaster for the evening. Brendan Foley was Topicmaster his first time to hold the role, he did a great job providing an interesting selection of topics for the members to practice their public speaking skills and Helsa Giles also held her first club role as Timekeeper.

Breda Forrest delivered her ‘Icebreaker’ (first speech in Toastmasters), it quite simply was an enjoyable and a very humorous speech a real treat for the club on the first night back. Maire Lynes gave a lovely evaluation of Breda’s speech.

Anne O’ Donovan did a very professional speech on the health risks associated with smoking. It was a speech rich in very interesting statistics and was very well put together. One fact that really stuck out from Anne’s speech is that there are 599 ingredients in cigarettes!

Rona Coughlan, delivered a speech in which she had to use visual aids. . She used powerpoint very well to discuss the early childhood curriculum, called ‘Aistear’, which means journey and is based on the idea of learning through play. Bridie O'Connell gave an excellent evaluation of Rona’ speech.

Pat Sexton’s speech was called “to filter or not”. This speech focused on many dangers that exist with modern technology. Pat spoke about the upsetting and hurtful posts that can be put on the internet and the real emotional damage that it can cause. Liam Flynn evaluated Pat on what was a thought provoking and wide ranging speech.

Ray Ryan was General Evaluator and did an excellent job

The first meeting of the season was really enjoyable with a great array of speeches and topics and we were delighted to see plenty of guests on the night

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets again on Thursday 19th September at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel, for another enjoyable night of speeches, topics, laughs and chat.

"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

New Season of Speakeasy Toastmasters

It’s that time of year again, another Toastmasters season is about to begin. It’s the time of year where we put the word out about our club, what we do and the warm welcome that awaits guests who would like to learn more about Toastmasters .

Our club is all about public speaking, overcoming the fear of standing in front of an audience and delivering a speech, finding your voice and over time developing that voice to grow in confidence.

Many think of standing in front of an audience and speaking is one of the most nerve racking things a person could ever do, but why should it be?

Speakeasy Toastmasters, Mallow provides a fun and supportive environment for people who want to develop the skill of public speaking, a skill that can enrich your life and build your self confidence and belief. It is also the perfect place to make new friends.

Our new season begins on 5th September in the Hibernian Hotel at 8pm. We invite anyone who wants to learn about our club and what we do or for anyone who want to have an enjoyable and relaxing night to come along.

What can you expect at a meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters? When you walk into one of our meetings you are greeted with real warmth, members are always delighted to see guests coming along and we are more than happy to guide you through the meeting. You will be treated to a night of interesting, thought provoking and humorous speeches as well as a lively a topic session. Oh and course there is the obligatory break for the all important cuppa.

Promise yourself something and come along on the 5th Sept for one enjoyable night.

And last but not least (for 2013)

The Great and the Good joined Toastmaster Marie Lynes for the final meeting of the Speakeasy season. Marie joined out going President Jerry Mulcahy and in coming Area Governor Anne Buckley at the top table. The club were honoured by the presence of out going Area Governor, Michael Sheehan, in the audience and of course Speakeasy member, Division A Governor Ray Ryan was giving a speech. As she put it so humorously, it was the time to realise that one was amongst titled people.!

The final night is traditionally a night where speakers make the speech that will allow them reach awards along the Toastmaster Program. All four speakers reached their goals with four excellent speeches. Claire O'Connell and Bill Martin completed the Competent Communication Manual and gained their CC award. Bill's inspirational speech, called "Don't let tigers eat me", called on people to be their best when dealing with children, delight in their sense of wonder and help create those wonderful lasting memories. Kieran Butler evaluated Bill's speech. Claire's creative speech looked at what it really means to be Irish and some contrasting characteristics. Claire encouraged us to bring forth the positivity in our Irishness and she included one of her own lovely poems. Mary Moynihan evaluated Claire's speech.

Liam Flynn achieved his Advanced Communication Silver Award, with a dramatic tale of the loss (temporary thankfully ) of a dear family pet, Sol the springer spaniel. The audience gave a gasp of relief when the story reached its happy conclusion.! Bridie O'Connell evaluated Liam's speech. Finally Ray Ryan achieved his Advanced Communication Gold with an absorbing evocative speech about a larger than life character, Unity Valkyrie Mitford and her tragic short life. Pat Sexton evaluated Ray's speech.

Anne Buckley kept the audience entertained with a wide range of topics. Pat Duggan as General Evaluator, assessed the evaluators and the meeting as a whole. Rona Coghlan was a watchful Timekeeper for the night. All were welcomed by guest greeters, Mary Moynihan, Marie Fitzpatrick, and Ronan Condon.

Incoming President Noel O'Connor was warmly welcomed by the audience and warm congratulations offered to out going President Jerry Mulcahy who ably presided over the clubs 20th season and with such warmth and enthusiasm.

Speakeasy returns in September and we hope you might join us, on alternate Thursdays 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel.

Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Post from Ray Ryan

Ray Ryan is our author today. He has served in many roles in Speakeasy Toastmasters Club including Club President. Ray has also held leadership roles in the broader Toastmaster organisation and is currently Division A Governor.
Toastmasters provides the opportunity to improve one’s communication skills, not alone by delivering speeches in a supportive environment, but through practicing one’s ability to speak unprepared. At every meeting we have a topics session where club members (important to say not guests!), are asked to speak on an unprepared topic for up to two minutes. Other club members and guests can then “add on” or say something related to that topic, and have one minute to do so.
Speech evaluations are of benefit, not alone to the Speaker, but also to the person delivering the evaluation. The evaluator has to listen to the speech and then has about twenty minutes to prepare the evaluation therefore improving one’s ability to absorb information and express oneself concisely.
Having been a member of Toastmasters for ten years, I have found that participating in Topics Sessions and delivering evaluations have been of benefit when it comes to interviews or having to respond to unexpected situations.
The Speakeasy Club is part of a wider Toastmaster community. Toastmasters is an international organization divided worldwide into District. Our district is District 71, which consists of Ireland and Britain. The District is divided in turn into Division, our local division is Division A, comprising of all the Toastmaster clubs in Cork, Kerry and Limerick County. Finally the Division is divided to Areas. Speakeasy Toastmasters forms part of Area 17, which also includes the clubs in Fermoy, Mitchelstown and Charleville.
Tonight at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel Speakeasy Toastmasters will hold the last meeting of this season. It will be packed programme with six speeches and evaluations and the usual Topics session. Non members are most welcome and will not be asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

"Never Give Up"

There was a lot done in a little time this week. Four brilliant speeches were heard and evaluated. There was a short but lively topic session and the club annual AGM was dealt with efficiently too in the second part of the meeting . Toastmaster clubs do put emphasis on time management and this skill was certainly to the fore at this meeting to the credit of Toastmaster for the evening, Kieran Butler who joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Liam Flynn at the top table.

It was a special night for the club as a new member gave her first speech. She was Helsa Giles and she delighted the crowd with a very clever humorous and charming speech about herself. We all look forward to Helsa's participation in the club. Margaret O'Regan evaluated Helsa's speech.

Mary Buckley's speech from the Specialty Speeches Manual, drew many wry smiles from the audience. She delivered some telling information via Shane Ross and Nick Webb's book, "The Wasters",about the waste of public money engaged in by public representatives with access to tax payers money in the time of the boom. Jaws dropped around the room as details of trips to international sporting and cultural events were described, at the flagrancy of it all. Kylie Minogue's song " I should be so lucky" was mentioned and everyone related totally to that sentiment ! Rona Coghlan evaluated Mary's speech.

James Kelleher's inspirational speech was entitled "Never Give Up". It was about a young man who 10 years to the day was involved in a near fatal car crash and spent 5 months in Rehab with little hope of walking again. Miraculously he recovered and is now dedicating himself to being a paramedic and specialising in attending to people in road traffic accidents. James was in fact that young man and in telling his own story so effectively he reminded us of the preciousness of life. Marie Lynes evaluated James' speech.

Anne Buckley's speech was a hoot and about in essence a boot or 2. Frugality and Fashion was the title and Anne very humorously described her dilemna when faced with a very expensive pair of boots which she really really liked. She developed a condition she diagnosed as "shopping paralysis" The moral of the story was that often in shopping expense does not equal success but on the other hand sometimes it does. Anne's evaluator was Brendan Foley, who must have been thinking of all the ladies in the audience when his only recommendation to improve this speech would be if Anne brought that beautiful boot with her.

Liam Flynn provided a very entertaining topics session, with topics ranging from "Sell me Mallow" to "History is bunk".

The timing of all the contributions was closely observed by Timekeeper of the night, Mary Moynihan.

Michael Cronin was General Evaluator of the evening.

At the AGM, a new committee was elected for next season, under the leadership of President Elect, Noel O'Connor.

All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by Guest Greeters, Mary Moynihan and Marie Lynes.
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow.
The next meeting is the last meeting of this season and really a bumper meeting to end the season with, as we will have 6 speeches, a real treat. Don't miss it on Thursday 30th May, 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow.

Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

A Tribute to.............

Speakeasy Toastmasters is a thriving cooperative where everyone makes a contribution to producing a vibrant club, but none more so than the founder and updater of the amazing resource that is the club’s website, Sean Corcoran.

At every Toastmaster meeting up to 16 members are involved with roles at the meeting. These include the speakers and their evaluators, the toastmaster, topicsmaster, guest greeters, timekeeper, grammarian and the general evaluator. For every role there is an information sheet, which is a great help in defining the requirements of each role. These sheets were compiled by Sean and are one of the many useful resources available to members on the club website. Nearly every member of a Toastmaster Club also at some stage serves in some and for most people , in every! role on the committee. The roles are, Guest Greeters, Secretary, Membership, Treasurer, PRO, Educational Vice President and President. The website serves all committee members with all sorts of information and resources to help them perform their role.

Besides this wonderful and stress reducing font of information, there is also plenty of entertaining aspects to the website. It gives a history of the club, the roll of honour, -namely all who have served as Club Presidents. It has a photo album and newspaper cuttings where all the occasions down the years can be scrutinized. There are links to other types of publicity the club has had, such as utube recordings of members giving prize winning speeches, radio interviews and television programmes that have been produced on the club. Weekly articles are sent to local papers and these are uploaded by Sean to the club website blogspot and twitter. This blog has articles dating back to 2002. If you have a job that requires computer skills or indeed computer parts you don’t have, you can be assured Sean will find them for you.

Besides devising and updating the website, Sean Corcoran has served in every role in Speakeasy including that of President. He puts the same thoughtfulness into everything he does and some good humour too. In the Topics session where a member is expected to speak for 2 minutes on a given topic Sean can totally convince with his great delivery when in reality he is unbelievably yes,- bluffing. At meetings Sean goes out of his way to include the welcome guests and to encourage new members. He is a proponent of life long education and taking on new challenges. That is why he epitomises the best spirit of Speakeasy Toastmasters. On the 20th Anniversary, its time to pay a tribute to the webmaster. Sean Corcoran, take a bow.

"We'll never get caught like this again"

It was an eclectic meeting this week at Speakeasy Toastmasters. Speech topics that ranged far and wide, between Emmeline Pankhurst to Nordic TV programs. The meeting was in the capable hands of Toastmaster Claire O' Connell who joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Marie Fitzpatrick at the top table.

Bridie O'Connell was working from the Interpretative Readings Manual when she chose to read the moving words of Emmeline Pankhurst who spoke on the subject of womens rights and the manner in which women had to fight for them, in the early 20th century. It was as that great woman put it, "what Civil War is like when Civil War is waged by women" It was a powerful speech and wonderfully interpreted by Bridie, who was evaluated by Tom O'Connor.

Brendan Foley gave a most accomplished and amusing speech with a historic twist on the subject of economic bubbles, tracing the first economic bubble to the 1630's in Holland when demand for tulips took off until eventually the bubble burst and the inflated price of tulips crashed. At least it was felt, - we'll never get caught like this again.....and that line certainly got a laugh. Ray Ryan evaluated Brendan's speech.

Marie Lynes had a captivated audience with a stirring speech where she brought the union leader James Larkin to life and took us all back to a time of terrible hardship for working people. A man who didn't deal in compromise but the "Workers Champion" without a doubt.

Down the dark corridors of Nordic Drama we were taken next by Pat Sexton who lauded the nineties for the great TV shows it produced like the Sopranos and the West Wing. Now apparently its the turn of the Danes whose fairytales are definitely grimmer but have the edge. Pat did PRO for BBC4 where we can find this fare. Tongue firmly in cheek one presumes, Pat suggested this was his recipe for increasing refinement. Tony O'Regan evaluated Pat's speech.

Finally Pat Duggan, working from the "Educational Speech Manual" gave a most useful speech accompanied by handout. The topic was "Concluding your Speech" and it was a wonderfully clear succinct speech.

Marie Fitzpatrick set the audience thinking with a wide selection of topics.

The General Evaluator for the meeting was Anne Buckley who ably evaluated the evaluators and the meeting as a whole
Angela Sheehan did timekeeping duties.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by Sergeant at arms, Mary Moynihan, Marie Lynes and Ronan Condon.
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs May 16th.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

USING LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE

USING LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE
The race is on. We are confronted on all sides by people willing to communicate with us and elicit promises from us. So I thought it would be a good idea to explore the effectiveness of word choices. Communicating with precision is not easy. There are a number of essentials to adhere to - the virtues of 1- Accuracy. 2-. Simplicity. 3.- Coherence. 4- Appropriateness. These are the primary essentials of effective word choices.

Choose words that are the exact shade of meaning you wish to communicate. Abraham Lincoln once said “speak so that the lowliest can understand you, and the rest will have no difficulty. Simplicity does not mean that your language must be simplistic, or that you should talk down to your audience. Use short easily understandable words that convey precise concrete meanings. Audiences do not have the luxury of going back over your points as they do in reading, hence the need for coherence.

Besides being accurate, clear, and properly intense, your language should be appropriate to the topic and to the situation. Solemn occasions call for diction that is restrained and dignified. Joyful occasions for word choices that are informal and lively. Suit your language to the tone of the occasion. These suggestions will help you in the construction of your future speeches. Good luck with them.

Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs May2nd.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.

Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.

"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Come Swim With Me

An attentive audience enjoyed a lively meeting at Speakeasy Toastmasters this week. Toastmaster Liam Flynn joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Michael Cronin at the top table. Liam was in sparkling form, introducing the speakers and explaining the running of the meeting for the benefit of guests and keeping order in a most humorous manner.

There were four very interesting speeches in the first half of the meeting, and four excellent evaluations of said speeches after the tea break.
First to the lectern was Anne Walsh. In a speech entitled " the Average Consumer",Anne proved herself to be anything but, highlighting the misleading advertising of goods she observed in a supermarket and showing her knowledge of the 2007 Consumer Act. Anne's excellent speech certainly gave us food for thought and also made us aware of the usefulness of the National Consumer Agency. Mary Buckley evaluated Anne's speech.

Kieran Butler gave a wonderful absorbing speech about oratory, using the great example of Abraham Lincoln. The tips Kieran passed on courtesy of President Lincoln, were:- keep it short, use imagery, end strong and revise, revise, revise. Kieran however besides passing on these useful tips, also entertained us greatly with quotes from the great man, not just the famous ones, but amusing ones also such as "marriage is neither heaven nor hell, its just purgatory". Claire O' Connell evaluated Kieran's speech.

Brid Broderick, a most welcome guest from the Nice and Easy Club gave a beautiful uplifting, entertaining speech called "Come swim with me". In it Brid described her quick progression once she started to learn swimming to become part of the Mallow Marlins Team and to take part in the Special Olympics. Brid 's humour and talent for engaging the audience was complimented by her evaluator, Margaret O'Regan.
.
Angela Sheehan 's speech was an exercise in "accepting an award", and Angela cleverly used the acceptance of a plaque as one of the 20 Club Presidents, which she received on the 20th Anniversary Celebration Night to produce this hugely entertaining speech, which gave the audience a lovely insight into Angela's warm connection with Speakeasy Toastmasters. Tony O'Regan evaluated Angela's speech.
Interspersed, with the speeches and before the evaluations session, Topicsmaster Michael gave out a varied list of topics. Members only are asked topics and have 2 minutes to respond before the bell rings. If anyone wants to add on they can do so and have 1 minute. The topics ranged from tattoos to telepathy and drew a great response from the audience. Michael was warmly congratulated by Toastmaster Liam for his role as MC at the 20th Anniversary Celebration Night.

Rona Coughlan was General Evaluator on the night and ably managed this job of evaluating the evaluators and the meeting as a whole.
Anne O'Donovan performed the timekeeping duties. Pat Sexton was grammarian and chose" insipid" as his word for the night, and all present were delighted the meeting was the opposite as usual.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by guest greeters, Marie Lynes, Mary Moynihan and Ronan Condon.
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs May 2nd.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Nerves Are Natural

Nervousness is natural before making presentations but there is help at hand in toastmaster clubs.

Regardless of your preparation beforehand, nervousness, to varying degrees is inevitable…and natural. Even the most experienced of speakers are nervous before a speech or presentation but they know how to control that nervousness and indeed turn in into positive energy that adds to their presentation.

If your palms sweat and your knees shake, let them. Focus on your material, you have it prepared and rehearsed and very soon into your delivery you will find that your nervousness will dissipate.

When you are being introduced or just before you start, take a deep breath and slowly exhale. This will make your voice sound resonant and natural.
While speaking, make eye contact with as many members of the audience as possible so no one feels left out of your talk.

There are of course many more skills to be learned in making a presentation such as, how to use hand gestures, when to use humour, body movement, voice projection etc and these are learned and practiced at every Toastmasters meeting.

Remember that Toastmasters is about people developing their public speaking and leadership skills by practicing in a comfortable sociable environment with other learners.

Why don’t you come along to any one of our meetings and see for yourself?
You will be delighted that you did and we would be delighted to meet you.

Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs 18th April.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Contest Results; "Born to Run" and other great speeches

On Thursday, 4th April Mallow Speakeasy Club hosted the Toastmasters Area Final for speech and evaluation contestants. Maire Corbett, from the Galtee Club , conducted a most enjoyable meeting with ease.

Geraldine Conway from the Failte Club created a warm , relaxed atmosphere with her mainly humorous topics.
There were five contestants in the Speech category. Eilish Ui Bhriain from the Fermoy club delivered the first speech ‘ Deoch an Dorais’ . She gave a humorous, evocative speech based on her rural upbringing. It concerned the visit of an official and the improvising skills of her mother to make one bottle of stout go further!

Pat Sexton from Mallow was next to speak with ‘Born to Run’ . In this inspirational speech we learnt about Fauja Singh who distinguished himself at the age of one hundred, in Toronto, by becoming the oldest man to complete a marathon . In his very descriptive talk he reinforced his message that age is merely a number.

‘ The Subconscious Mind, Friend or Foe?’ was the intriguing title of Mallow’s Claire O’Connell’s speech. Claire gave us an insight into the powerful effect of conditioning on people’s self image. She gave a humorous account of how it is possible to achieve your goals through positive thinking before bedtime. She even encouraged us to imagine ourselves out of the Recession!

Ann Lyons from the Galtee Club followed with an uplifting speech entitled ‘Courage’. She described how she was literally lifted out of the doom and gloom by the determination and amazing courage of the athletes in the Olympics and particularly, the Paralympics. She went on to reflect on the courage of everyday heroes. She concluded that ‘courage doesn’t always roar, sometimes it is that little voice that says ‘I will try again tomorrow’.

Kevin Walsh from Fermoy was the final contestant with a speech called ‘Lightening Lines’. In this vividly descriptive speech Kevin gave us an insight into his personal experiences of threatened hearing and sight loss. His great sense of appreciation was infectious. He impressed on us that every moment is precious. Like Louis Armstrong he urged us to realize that it is truly ‘a wonderful world’. Kevin Walsh was chosen to represent the area in the Division final in Oriel House on April 21st.

Bill Doyle from Newcastlewest gave a very humorous, entertaining speech , ‘Bear with Me’ for the Evaluation contestants. Will Finn from the Failte Club was first to evaluate. He was, followed by Kieran Connolly and Kevin Walsh, both from Fermoy, Ann Lyons from the Galtee Club was next. The final two contestants Pat Sexton and Marie Fitzpatrick represented Mallow. Pat Sexton was chosen to represent the area in the Division Final in Oriel House, Ballincollig on 21st April.
Michael Sheehan ,the Area Governor addressed the meeting. He stressed that all the contestants were winners on the night. He expressed the appreciation of all present on the high standard displayed by all those who competed on the night.
Frank ODriscoll from Fermoy acted as Chief Judge on the night and Pat Duggan did the timekeeping.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow April 18th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 086 3752895,or Noel 087 2427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

20'th Aniversary Celebration Night

Speakeasy President Jerry Mulcahy welcomed a group of more than 100 people this Saturday including some distinguished visitors to an evening of celebration, reminiscence and fun in honour of Speakeasy Toastmasters 20th Anniversary.

Toastmaster for the night was Michael Cronin who humorously directed the course of the evening which included some speeches and some topics around the centrepiece of a very enjoyable meal provided by the Hibernian Hotel and music provided by none other than Stanley Notte a toastmaster himself from Glanmire Toastmaster Club.

Among the distinguished guests was Mr Tom Cronin, a representative of Mallow Credit Union who generously supports the Speakeasy Schools Contest and the Mayor of Mallow Noel O'Connor. Mr O' Connor gave a warm and witty address, complimenting the club in particular on their commitment to the community through the creation of the schools contest and the creation of the Cope Foundation Nice and Easy Club, by President Jerry Mulcahy.

Toastmaster Pat Sexton gave an entertaining speech, reflecting on the clubs achievements over the past 20 years of the club, and lingering on some amusing aspects of the clubs attempts to make and break international relations, in the gatherings that occur between Irish and British Toastmaster Clubs in conferences down the years, where sing songs tended to have a slightly patriotic tinge on the Irish side of things.

Marie Fitzpatrick literally had the crowd in stitches with a hilarious speech on her knitting of an aran jumper over a period of 14 years or so...

The final speaker of the night was a new member to the club Tom O'Connor who gave his icebreaker speech, the first speech a toastmaster makes. It was a speech full of wonderful imagery centring around the great tale from Tom's childhood of how 4 schoolboys including Tom carried a supply of art materials from one end of Mallow to the other in a box resembling a coffin and carrying it in such a manner, they had the whole town confused, blessing themselves and stopping the traffic. The schoolmaster who sent them out to deliver the materials had not envisaged such a creative journey!

Tony O'Regan gave out the topics on the night and they aptly covered happenings over the years. Ex President and Ex District Governor Jeremiah Ronayne surely would have got the ribbon on a regular night. He hadn't a clue what topicsnaster Tony was referring to in his question, but in true Toastmaster style he changed the topic and recalled a toastmaster who shan't be named, being asked what he would do if the prized canary he was charged to mind died. Said toastmaster was for once and surely once only stumped. Well... he started, I'd open the cage door and ....(long pause)..A voice raised up from the audience and shouted.. "and jump in". And so the immortal image was created of said toastmaster swinging on perch in cage.

It was fitting on the night that all 20 Club Presidents were honoured with a commerative plaque.

It was indeed a great night of fun at Toastmasters 20th Anniversary and all look forward to many years to come of this great club.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, next series of meetings at 8pm Hibernian Mallow April 4th, April 18th, May 2nd, May16th and May30th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

"Born To Run"

This week, as Contest Chair Tony O' Regan explained, the International Speech and Evaluation Contest draws all Toastmaster Clubs together. Members who participate in this contest in clubs all over the world, follow the same path. If they get through the club contest, they go forward to the Area final and then the Division Final and then the District Final until finally they could be heading to the United States to the World Final!
After that introduction the audience did indeed settle in with great anticipation to hear the four Speech Contestants and five Evaluation Contestants. They were not to be disappointed.
Liam Flynn was first up with an excellent speech on the nature of self sufficiency. Liam encouraged us all to look to our own ability in terms of self sufficiency to get through the present day economic crisis, but most importantly ,-to help others. He cited local strengths, our agriculture, our tourism potential and most importantly, our youth, who could lead the way forward to a return to prosperous times.
Our President, Jerry Mulcahy, was next up. He gave a most moving speech about a tragic event that occurred many years ago on a building site in England where three young friends of which he was one, worked, having had to leave Ireland due to hard times back then. One of these friends died in an accident on the building site. Jerry framed this tragedy beautifully, painting a vivid picture of the times they lived in, taking the boat to England, like "hell without fire" and the sad good byes..
Pat Sexton's speech, "Born to Run", told the fascinating story of the "Turbaned Tornado", a Sikh gentleman of a 100 years of age who came in 3850th in the Toronto marathon in 2011. He was by no means the last back either!. This tale drew many happy smiles from the audience as we heard that Mr Singh took up running at the tender age of 89 and ecshewed performance enhancing drugs. His mantra was simplicity, serenity and shoes,-bright colourful shoes. This was a delicious, inspirational story that encouraged us to enjoy our age whatever it is. After all as Mr Singh pointed out,- very few people die over 100. A lot of people probably buying shoes today!
Claire O' Connell gave an interesting presentation on "the subconscious mind, friend or foe". She demonstrated the power and also the irrationality of the subconscious mind giving many interesting examples such as the plant which flourishes when told its beautiful while the other one dies that has been told it is ugly. Claire encouraged us to give our subconscious plenty of positive feedback.
In the Evaluation Contest the contestants had the pleasure of evaluating a delightful speech that enthralled the audience by a guest speaker from the Fermoy Toastmaster Club, Eilis Ui Bhriain. It was on the subject of her native place,-Dunmanus Bay, and as all the evaluators pointed out was very special in the beautiful imagery Eibhlis used to describe her home place. "Take me easy", she said, -"I was reared a pet" and it was no bother to do so as she described the sunsets and the bluebells and the farm with the grass of 7 to 8 milch cows. The picture was painted and she gave us the mythical story too of how the rocks were scattered on the top of the mountain a place her mother said would be "too rough for her timid feet". Many indeed felt Eibhlis was surely lost to the Irish Tourist Board!
Marie Lynes, as Topicsmaster kept the audience occupied and amused with a wide range of topics while the judging went on.
Mary Buckley and Anne Walsh did the important duties of timekeepers for the Contestants.
All were warmly welcomed to the Contest by guest greeters, Mary Moynihan, Marie Lynes and Ronan Condon.

On the night Pat Sexton and Claire O Connell were chosen to represent Speakeasy at the Area Speech Final.
Marie Fitzpatrick and Pat Sexton were chosen to represent Speakeasy at the Area Evaluation Final.

The Area Final of Speech and Evaluation Contests will be held at the Speakeasy Toastmasters next meeting, on April 4th.8pm, Hibernian Hotel Mallow.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow April 4th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Great Big Melting Pot

Our author today is Liam Flynn, a Wexford man who now lives in Millstreet and among his many interests, luckily for Speakeasy Toastmasters, is a great interest and dedication to the club. He has served in many roles on the club committee and is an enthuasiastic participant at meetings and contests.

Great Big Melting Pot
Take a pinch of White man
Wrap him up in black skin
Add a touch of blue blood
And a little bitty bit of red Indian Boy.
These are the opening lines of a hit song from the 70’s byr British Band “Blue Mink”. Their relevance to Toastmasters is as profound now as when they first appeared.
When you to go to a Toastmaster meeting you leave your luggage at the door. Colour, Creed, Education level, Degree of shyness doesn’t matter. Neither does social standing, affiliations or past achievement. When you enter the meeting only the self is present.
Firstly you will feel welcomed and put at ease. You will not be asked to speak or cajoled to perform. Everyone at the meeting will understand your state of nervousness because we all have experienced the “first” meeting.
If you have not experienced a toast master meeting before you may have a pre conceived idea that it is only for the highly proficient speaker who can do a presentation at the drop of a hat. Nothing could be further from the truth!
If you decide that you would like to progress through Toastmasters you will be given a Competent Communicator manual. This lays out a 10 step progressive programme of speeches and when completed makes you a “CC” or “Competent Communicator” in the eyes of Toastmasters.
The speed with which you do these 10 speeches is up to yourself. You are in total control. In the meantime you will have gained enormous experience from listening to other speakers both novice and experienced going through their programmes. Listening is the key.
After the first 10 speeches you can then pick from different speech manuals to diversify the type of speech you would like to make.These can include Story Telling,
Special Occasion, Business Presentation, etc.,
“All you need is a great big melting pot
Big enough for the world and all it’s got
Stir it for a hundred years or more
And turn out Coffee Coloured people by the score.”
For Coffee Coloured people read “Competent Communicators”
Liam Flynn
CC ,ACB
Speakeasy’s Speech and Evaluation Contest which will at 8pm Hibernian Hotel on March 21st.

The Celebration of Speakeasy's 20th Anniversary and tickets will be on Saturday March 23rd in the Hibernian Hotel. There will be a meal, speeches and an entertaining Topics Session to boot. It is an opportunity for non members to take a look at a Toastmaster Club and all are welcome. Contact Ronan at 0862758501 or email toastmastersmallow@gmail.com for tickets.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 21st March. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Life and Trouser Length

Open Invitation to Speakeasy Toastmasters 20th Anniversary
Celebration on Saturday 23rdMarch

In the Hibernian Hotel at 8pm Saturday 23rd March, Speakeasy Toastmasters will host a celebration, with a full meal, music, speeches and a topic session thrown in to mark the 20th year of this great club. The club as usual welcome non members who might be interested in having a look at a Toastmaster Club and non members are never asked to speak. Tickets are being subsidized by the club and are 30euro per person and tickets can be booked through Ronan at 0862758501 or contact the email- toastmasters mallow@gmail.com. There is a great buzz in the air with regard to this night and all are guaranteed to have a relaxed and entertaining evening so book early and avoid disappointment!

Meanwhile this week’s meeting provided the audience with four absorbing speeches, interspersed with a wide range of topics. The able MC or Toastmaster of the night was Tom O’Connor who introduced the speakers and the officers of the night. He joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Ronan Condon at the top table. Ronan kicked off the evening with some topics that drew very amusing responses, whether they were intended to or not. What have you learned from Life’s University for example.? Well,its all to do with trousers apparently, the length can unexpectedly shorten leading to unforeseen embarrassment. Was it to do with the washing machine?, a sudden growth spurt.? A different take on Life’s University indeed..

Anne O’ Donovan ’s speech gave a fascinating insight into the history and indeed the science behind shopping. The guru of Mall design Victor Grune back in the 1960’s came up with some interesting ploys to engage the shopper such as not having clocks so we can forget the time and the effective use of music. These still pertain today and Dundrum Shopping Centre had 19.7 million visitors in 2012. As Anne pointed out, shopping can be leisure or therapy or even replace religious observance for some,
depending on your outlook. Mary Buckley evaluated Anne’s speech.
Pat Duggan gave a very instructive demonstration speech on how to use old containers to create the perfect floral gift that would work as his speech title suggested from Mothers Day to Christmas. Angela Sheehan evaluated Pat’s speech.
Rona Coghlan gave a very enlightening speech on Dyslexia in 3 to 5 year olds, describing the indicators, some helpful tips that would help a child with this difficulty and directing people to the website www.dyslexia.ie. It was a speech that conveyed well researched information in a clear and compassionate manner, and certainly sparked the interest of the audience.
Finally and rather inspiringly if such a word exists, Bill Martin, sought to persuade us to take action.! We were all very cheered by this speech as Bill decided to give us the Mindset of Champions. To realise your potential, the main work has to be done on your daily rituals. There was some delightful advice.
Avoid News! Do not engage in the recession!. Make a Stop Doing it list instead of a To-Do list..
One’s peak energy is between 5 and 9am! That was the only tough message in an altogether uplifting speech evaluated by Marie Lynes.
Grammarian of the night Celine Cremin suggested the role be looked at with a view to having a regular reading instead which many felt would be a positive improvement and no doubt will be further discussed. Kieran Butler was as usual very effective in his role as General Evaluator of the meeting as a whole. The timekeeping duties were taken up by Pat Connolly.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by Guest Greeters, Marie Lynes, Mary Moynihan and Ronan Condon.

Next Thursday Night -21st March, the club will hold its Speech And Evaluation Contest.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 14th March. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Effective Communication

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Effective Communication is a ‘must have’ in this electronic age. Being an effective communicator takes real skill. Communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. Communication is the basis of interpersonal skills and the greater your awareness of how it all works, the more effective your communication will be. To be effective in business, you have to communicate well. To be a good manager, you have to communicate exceptionally well. Communication is individual. We are not all the same. There is never one right way to communicate. Authentic effective communication always happens when we reply on those things we know to be true about or for ourselves. Your personal style can say more for you than all the words you use can. Most people look at what is wrong with themselves and other people, rather than focusing on what already works. Remember many things have to be working well for you to have got this far already. The communication cycle works as follows and you can take responsibility for every stage:
Spoken - Heard - Understood - Agreed To - Acted On - Implemented.
In Toastmasters you will become aware of where you or others tend to fall off the cycle. So, can I give you any greater reason for joining Speakeasy Toastmasters?

PERSONAL IMPACT

Personal impact includes key elements of Communication; Presentation; Assertiveness and Influencing techniques. All these components enable you to make the impact you want. We all can improve our ability to influence others. You all cringe at that interview that went badly wrong or that appraisal you wish to forget. Here is an opportunity to ensure that you will not repeat these experiences. In order to know making an impact works, there are a few areas you have to consider, and study.
• Knowing how and why things go wrong
• Improving your ability to influence others
• Understanding rules and conventions and boundaries
• Speaking your mind without offending
• Finding our how others see you
An awareness of all of these will increase confidence and raise self esteem. Come along to our next meeting as a guest and see for yourself how we put these skills into practice. We do it in stages and in an encouraging way.

Speakeasy’s Speech and Evaluation Contest which will be held at 8pm Hibernian Hotel on March 21st.

This year is the Club’s 20th Anniversary and tickets are now available for this unmissable night on Saturday March 23rd in the Hibernian Hotel. Non members are most welcome. Contact Ronan at 0862758501.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 7th March. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Six Brilliant Speeches

This week at Speakeasy, a packed program was ably managed by Toastmaster Bridie O’Connell, aptly described by General Evaluator Claire O’Connell as “cool, calm, collected and classy”.

There were six speakers. Angela Sheehan made a most beautiful speech entitled “The Big Fellow“, paying tribute to her father, Michael Madden who died recently. A passionate sportsman, skilled in many codes but especially as a rugby player, who played on the Munster team against the All Blacks in 1954, his club was Sundays Well. Once when injured and bleeding profusely, he didn’t want to leave the field of play, saying “leave me be, I’ll die for the Well”. A man dedicated to his family, friends and social circle, he moved with the times, and had an iPhone, used Skype, even had a face book page. Angela’s words were a wonderful tribute to her father, a man who lived life to the full.

There was more evidence at this week’s meeting of the vibrancy of Speakeasy, with two new members, making their first speech, -the icebreaker speech, where they introduce themselves to the club.
Anne Walsh, in her lovely speech gave us an entertaining insight into how a fun loving person like herself came to settle down and through reading about the work of Maria Montessori develop a deep interest in Special Education. Pat Connolly evaluated Anne’s speech.
Brendan Foley delivered a fine colourful icebreaker describing a great variety of work and travel and educational experience in a lovely humorous style. Michael Cronin evaluated Brendan’s speech.

Marie Lynes told us the fascinating and appalling story of Mara Linga, in Australia where in 1953 UK scientists tested the effects of the detonation of Atomic bombs. Afterwards, with no strict security implemented besides the erection of signs that locals could not read, there were terrible health consequences for the local people and the servicemen who were sent in. As Marie effectively conveyed in this important speech, the paltry compensation package and the length of time it took to deal with any aspect of this tragedy is testimony that good people need not to remain silent about such terrible deeds. Pat Duggan evaluated Marie’s speech.
Cait Murray’s objective was to do a demonstration speech and she used a compass and a route card of a walk in the Galtees to pay tribute to leaders in hillwalking clubs, a popular pastime these days, who put a lot of work into leading groups safely on the mountains. James Kelleher evaluated Cait’s speech

President Jerry Mulcahy told the fascinating history of the hunting of the Wren, which he explained originally developed out of fear of the Wren. He brought us back to his youth in West Limerick. A Batch was the title of the group and the Cashier carried the holly bush. There was a dress code and they met in the rambling house. They called to people who couldn’t actually come out to them. Sadly from the late 1940’s on emigration took a toll on these traditional practices but for us who heard this speech, the history of the occasion will come to mind, next time we hear a knock at the door on St Stephens Day. Bill Martin evaluated Jerry’s speech.
David Roache was Topicsmaster and provided a fine array of topics from St Valentine’s Day to the question of whether Mallow Town with its Folk Festival has a 25 years head start on “The Gathering”.

Ray Ryan as Grammarian praised efforts to avoid crutch words when speaking. Tom O’Connor kept a watchful eye on the timings as Timekeeper.

All were warmly greeted as usual by the cheerful guest greeters, Mary Moynihan, Marie Lynes and Ronan Condon.

A particularly interesting meeting to look forward to will be the Club’s Speech and Evaluation Contest which will be held at 8pm Hibernian Hotel on March 21st.

This year is the Club’s 20th Anniversary and tickets are now available for this unmissable night on Saturday March 23rd in the Hibernian Hotel. Non members are most welcome. Contact Ronan at 0862758501.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 7th March. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

Michael Cronin, the author of this weeks article, is a long time supporter of Speakeasy Toastmasters, President of the club more than once and has represented the club successfully at international contests.



Variety is the spice of life

Not only does toastmasters improve our communication and leadership skills it also provides us with other advantages which are not so visible. By becoming a member you come in contact with people from all different walks of life. Within the club you get opportunity to meet people whose work and life is totally different to our own and who have very interesting stories to share. My recent favourite is when a member told me that as a young person he left Ireland and became a train driver in Rhodesia.



We are also very fortunate in The Speakeasy club to have a have a very wide age profile in our membership, our youngest being in their 20's to our oldest being in their mid 70's. It gives a great variety of stories and insights into different topics and its wonderful to see how everyone learns from each other.



It is also important to note that the Speakeasy Club is not just a Mallow club, the continued success of the club has been built on the fact that we have members not only from Mallow and its locality but also from a much wider area which include places such as Kanturk, Millstreet, Boherbue and many more. This adds greatly to the mix within the club.



While toastmasters has a lot to offer regarding communication skills it also has a lot to offer from a social aspect. Come along and see for yourself and enjoy.



Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 21st Feb. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.


www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Fish don't climb trees

This week at Speakeasy, Rona Coghlan as Toastmaster and Anne O’Donovan as Topicsmaster joined President Jerry Mulcahy at the top table.

Rona had the pleasure of introducing two guest speakers, two transition year students whose youth belied the absorbing speeches they made. Honor O’Flynn made a wonderful speech on the importance of music. Honor ’s speech was indeed uplifting in the way she touched on so many different types of music from Bob Marley to Mozart and the great uses music has, from improving the mood on a personal level to fund raising for worthy causes. Anne Buckley evaluated Honor and strongly encouraged her to continue both her music and her public speaking. Jordan O’Callaghan made a very effective plea in his speech for people to devote their lives to doing what it is they love and therefore are good at. Fish don’t climb trees well,-so Einstein pointed out, -one of Jordan’s very convincing quotes. Kieran Butler evaluated Jordans’ speech and complimented him on a very impressive style of presentation and a great speech that made a strong impression on the audience.

Speakeasy’s James Kelleher gave a very illuminating speech on practical first aid, - explaining how to use what one has at hand to deal with unfortunate incidents such as having a knife slip and stick in your arm. Only James could get quite a bit of humour out of some quite traumatic sounding incidents!. James Bond comes to mind and his speech title was indeed“ First Aid Tips like the Movies”. He definitely created some memorable images as his evaluator Marie Lynes pointed out.
Mary Moynihan’s speech,-”Medicine for the Mind” was a thought provoking reflection on the delight of reading. Mary looked at reading and its benefits from childhood onwards and there is no doubt that the audience members were keen to get reading as a result of this lovely speech.
Finally Ronan Condon gave a delightful speech on thoughts that come to him as he looks at the Map of the World he has hanging on his wall. In essence the map is to him a memory map as it brings to mind places he has visited and places he would like to visit. It was a speech guaranteed to turn the mind to dreaming of far flung places.

Anne O’Donovan had a very successful evening as Topicsmaster. With topics as diverse as Operation Transformation to Drink driving, Anne drew a lot of response from the audience.
Marie Fitzpatrick was General Evaluator for the night and gave a comprehensive evaluation of the meeting as a whole as well having the difficult decision to make as to who to award ribbons to, for best speaker, best topics speaker and best evaluation. This is just the General Evaluators decision on the night and a personal choice of the General Evaluator whether they want to award these or not.

Pat Connolly did the duty of Grammarian and complimented good usage of the English language. His “word of the night” was Toast and he got many humorous uses of this throughout the evening.
David Roache kept a watchful eye on the time in his duty as timekeeper.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by guest greeters, Marie Lynes, Mary Moynihan and Ronan Condon.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 21st Feb. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

"I Expected Suits"

Angela Sheehan is a long-term member of Speakeasy Toastmasters who has served the club in a range of roles including that of President.
I expected suits.
I expected suits, I expected a room full of suits, maybe lots of business types and I wasn’t too sure about this Toastmasters business anyway. It might be awfully serious. I might not like it. Maybe no-one would talk to me. I had arrived on my own and was new to Mallow - I probably wouldn’t know anyone. I needn’t have worried. I met farmers, lots of farmers and teachers, nurses, engineers, students, landscape gardeners and the list goes on…from all walks of life, all ages and all very friendly and very welcoming. That was more than 12 years ago and I’m still a member of Toastmasters and I’m really glad that I went along to that first meeting. It wasn’t what I expected. It was much, much more.
I expected serious speeches and ‘cerebral’ topics – and while some speeches are serious many are amusing, light-heated, informative and always very varied. The speeches are never boring and all original with much research or life learning included. This means that you leave a Toastmasters meeting on a Thursday night, possibly still giggling at a funny episode you heard about or certainly having learned something new and it’s quite likely you will have been provoked into thinking more deeply about some very varied issue.You would be surprised what you would hear at a Toastmasters meeting.
I really didn’t expect to learn so much and laugh so much.
I never anticipated tapping into my creative side. But of course! You write your speeches yourself. I certainly enjoyed that. Included in the nearly 40 speeches I’ve given over 12 years have been serious speeches, informative speeches, entertaining speeches (well I thought they were). They are not taken out of the air and decided by whim. Typically the nature of the speech will depend on the type of manual you are currently working on e.g. at the moment I’m working through the ‘Special Occasion Speeches’ manual and my next speech will be in praise of someone I know or someone famous. I have also given speeches from a range of other manuals including ‘The Entertaining Speaker’, ‘Storytelling’, ‘Speaking to inform’ and ‘Specialty Speeches’. I might try ‘Persuasive Speaking’ next.
Each speech has been ‘evaluated’, which means that someone from the club offered some very constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. This leads to continuous improvement. And the role of evaluator allows members to develop their ability to listen, analysand and critique in a very positive way.
I didn’t expect to enhance my CV and include Toastmasters experiences in a successful job interview. But that did happen. I was able to include the years of experience in PR, marketing, event management, and advertising which I gained through numerous roles in the club. Getting involved with the club committee and taking on all types of roles over the years, including President, resulted in opportunities to gain experiences in many areas of personal development.
Someone once said that Toastmasters is one of the best kept secrets around. They were right. There’s a wealth of knowledge and experience to be gained, at very low cost. What more can I say.
You get much more than you would expect from Toastmasters.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 7th Feb. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on
our blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Presidents Distinguished Club 2012

Speakeasy provides a warm and supportive environment for people who want to improve their communication and leadership skills. This week, the second meeting of the new season, President Jerry Mulcahy and Toastmaster Celine Cremin took the opportunity to inform new comers at the meeting that membership at this stage of the year is half price, -35 euro.
As Toastmaster, -Celine fulfilled the duties of explaining the running of the meeting, introducing the officers, and introducing the speakers with ease and with great humour. James Kelleher joined Celine and the President at the top table in the role of Topicsmaster. James produced a great range of topics over the course of the evening which engaged the audience.

There were four excellent speeches. In a speech entitled Taking a Stand, Michael Cronin took us back to the dramatic year of 1968, and told the stirring story of two Black athletes, -John Carlos and Tommy Smith who were recipients of Gold and Bronze medals. These brave men in the times when Black people struggled to get basic Human Rights, raised their fists in the Black Power Salute, as their National Anthem played. They were not alone, but accompanied by the Silver Medallist, an Australian, Peter Norman, who did not raise his fist, but stood with them, also wearing a badge symbolising Human Rights. They all 3 suffered the consequences of being ostracised for years to come. With the great visual aid of the 3 on the podium to contemplate, this speech gave the audience much to think about. Pat Sexton evaluated Michael’s speech.

Tom O’Connor gave a wonderful speech, with the title of “An Elusive Truth”. In this most absorbing speech Tom paid homage to a great human being, called Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish Diplomat, who saved the lives of many Hungarian Jews in World War Two. Rona Coughlan evaluated Tom’s speech.

Liam Flynn’s speech was called “You’re not Alone”. This was a heartwarming, uplifting and beautifully crafted speech, where Liam encouraged us all to look to our own ability in terms of self sufficiency to get through the present day economic crisis, but most importantly ,-to help others. He cited local strengths, our agriculture, our tourism potential and most importantly, our youth, who could lead the way forward to a return to prosperous times. Claire O’Connell evaluated Liam’s speech.

Finally our immediate ex President, Tony O’Regan had the objective of giving a speech to accept an award, and as it happened Tony really did have an award to accept. Speakeasy Toastmasters under Tony’s stewardship have been given the award of President Distinguished Club by the international Toastmasters Organisation for the amount of goals they achieved last year. These goals are set out in the interest of having a well run, productive, successful club which Speakeasy is. Tony accepted the award graciously on behalf of all the members and paid special tribute to one person, our Educational Vice President of last year, -Jean Sayers, for the quiet and unassuming manner in which Jean did so much work behind the scenes. He encouraged new members to join up and to be relaxed in knowing that this club gives people the perfect opportunity and place where they can safely fail on the way to improving their public speaking and leadership skills. Ray Ryan evaluated Tony’s speech.

Bill Martin evaluated the meeting as a whole and evaluated the evaluators, keeping a strict eye on timing which is an important focus in Toastmaster meetings.
Angela Sheehan was the grammarian for the night. She watched out for the use of “crutch words”, such as ah and um and pointed out nice use of English, such as Tom’s use of a quote-
“The midnight fear, the knock upon the door,
the brutal face behind the gun, on the icy Danube shore."
Angela’s word that she chose to promote was “Bravo”, and there was certainly plenty of occasion to use this word!.

Pat Duggan as Timekeeper kept a watchful eye on timings. All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by Guest Greeters,- Marie Lynes, Mary Moynihan and Ronan Condon


Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday Feb 7th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on
our blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

"What do ye do?"

Pat Connolly has achieved many Toastmaster awards in his long association with the organisation. He is one of the founder members of Kinsale and District Toastmasters Club, and over the years has helped a number of clubs throughout Munster to develop. In this article he outlines the purpose of good speech structure and speech making and introduces his readers to the first speech that a new Toastmaster would make - The Ice-Breaker. Pats' personal goal for this year is to complete the penultimate award in Toastmasters, that of Distinguished Toastmaster.

As a member of the Toastmaster Family for almost thirty years now, the most common question people ask me on a regular basis is 'what do ye do'? The simple answer is we continue to strive to improve our leadership and communication skills, through making speeches, evaluating speeches and speaking 'off the cuff'.Why do people want to make a speech? Well there are many reasons, – accepting an award, a retirement function, presentation in the workplace, Father of the Bride, etc.
Where can we get material for speeches? Absolutely everywhere. Look around you where you are presently situated, reading this article, and I can guarantee you that there are at least four or more items that could supply ideal material for an interesting speech. Reading is invaluable.
In some club meetings they have a long established tradition of having a reading. This is usually just before the interval. Reading is the best way to find material for any speech a person wishes to make. However taking somebody else’s material and using it as your own is a non starter in Toastmasters, as in other walks of life.
So where can you get superior support, enthusiastic encouragement and very willing people who will help you to develop the skills you already have? Yes! You’ve guessed – your local Toastmaster’s Club of course.How can this be done? It can be done by following the ten projects in the first manual you will receive when you become a club member, which will help you to become a competent communicator.

Speech number one, the Ice Breaker. The first speech a member will present to the club is called the ‘Ice Breaker’, – you speak about yourself and if you think about it, you will certainly have a huge amount of material to work with. Your presentation can be as personal or as impersonal as you wish. You can use some information on your background, interests and perhaps what you would like to do in the future, maybe how many speeches you will make in the club year.
There are a number of points to consider in your preparation stage. Firstly, read the details of the entire project before preparing your talk. Then mentally plan the outline and only then begin writing down the material. There will be many changes in structure and content, with additions and deletions, before your are completely satisfied with your presentation. You many use notes during your speech.
Timing is very important in speech making. While all sections are important, the time taken by the speakers helps them to monitor how well or otherwise they did in their presentations. In your preparation always factor in your timing in your practice sessions. Speak at a reasonable rate, so that your audience can enjoy your presentation and this will allow you time to think, and reference your notes. Always practice giving your speech to family or friends and don’t be afraid to practice in front of a mirror – remember what you see in the mirror, is what your audience will see when you present your speech. As eye contact is a very important part of giving a speech, you should begin to use it even at this early stage. Eye contact makes you at one with the audience and helps to bring them into your space. And finally, always finish your speech before you begin it. This means that you have everything prepared and fine tuned long before you present your speech to your fellow club members.

In summary, the objectives of a Stage One Speech are to prepare a speech, to helping you begin speaking before an audience by introducing yourself to your club members, and to begin to understand the strengths you already have and identify the areas that require particular emphasis in your speaking development and finally the time allowed for this project is four to six minutes.
Our next meeting is tonight so do drop in and you may hear an Ice-breaker being presented, either way, you will have a very educational and entertaining evening. Oh, and do bring a friend or two.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B. next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday 24th Jan. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on
our blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Playing a typewriter with expression

The new year started off well for Speakeasy with a lovely meeting chaired in the capable relaxed style of Toastmaster for the night, Anne Buckley. It was a special pleasure that we were joined on the night by two speakers from the Nice and Easy Toastmasters Club, which is a club that Speakeasy President Jerry Mulcahy is very committed to.

Helen Buckley of the Nice and Easy is a frequent visitor to Speakeasy and yet again gave a lovely speech. It was on a topic of personal relevance to Helen,- the Special Olympics, as Helen herself has participated in golf in the Olympics, but also she incorporated some very interesting information about a Special Olympics group in Orange County South California who also have a Toastmaster Club called The Gavel Club. The confidence developed by members of this club is very useful in publicising the Special Olympics, and they have the great title of Global Messengers. Helen’s speech was very warmly received and evaluated by Angela Sheehan.
Brid Broderick of Nice and Easy was paying her first visit to Speakeasy and gave a delightful, humorous as well as informative speech on camels. Brid was complimented on her lovely delivery of this speech and great use of vocal variety which really brought out the humour in the speech. Brid’s evaluator was Marie Fitzpatrick. Speakeasy look forward to another visit from Brid and Helen.

There were two speakers from Speakeasy. Claire O’Connell gave a speech with the objective of persuading the audience. She chose the topic of political correctness, highlighting amusing examples such as maintenance hole for the politically incorrect manhole. The only PC in Claire‘s life is her laptop and she made a convincing appeal for abandoning political correctness. Her speech was evaluated by Michael Cronin
Rhona Coughlan gave a lovely speech with the delightful title;-” The typewriter when played with expression is less annoying than a piano played by a sister or near relative”. In it Rhona described her enchantment with learning the piano, with much humour and a great use of vocal variety. Her evaluator was Tony O’Regan.

The Topicsmaster for the night was Tom O’ Connor and he certainly excelled with many imaginative topics, such as the end result of 4 famous personages who shall be nameless, a hungry Bengal tiger, and a boa constrictor on a journey from Mumbai and what the end result would be! Of course club member Pat Sexton had an able answer.
The meeting was charmingly evaluated as a whole by Marie Lyons. Mary Moynihan provided the “word “of the night,- Ballyhoo, which indicates exaggeration and there was happily a bit of that.
All were welcomed to the meeting by our Guest Greeters,- Marie Lyons, Ronan Condon and Mary Moynihan.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B.next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday Jan 24th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on
our blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

From the Hi-B to the Indian Ocean

From the Hi-B to the Indian Ocean
Pat Duggan was President of Speakeasy Toastmasters 2003-2004. He has been actively involved in setting up another Toastmaster club since,-.Guardian Toastmasters in Cork City but still remains loyal to Speakeasy.

When I came to live in Mallow I had already been a member of Toastmasters for a couple of years so I intended to find the nearest club when I was settled in my new job and had somewhere to live. The research wasn’t difficult – I was walking past the Hibernian Hotel one day and spotted the Speakeasy Toastmasters plaque. Job done! I called into reception to get some details and the following Thursday night I went along to a meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters.

On the night I received the warm welcome I had come to expect from Toastmasters. Nearly 14 years later I still attend regularly to meet old friends, make new ones and mostly to hear about all the wonderful things that Toastmasters get up to.
From second-hand cars that broke down regularly but “had a space for a radio” to how not to turn an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean to what can be kept in a biscuit tin to most recently, the rearing of free range organic geese. Where else would you get it?

Not only is Toastmasters very sociable and good fun it is a great place to learn – usually unbeknownst to yourself. After a year or two I was invited to join the committee and later had the honour of being club president. Along the way I learned how to take notes, plan a meeting, run a club, compose a speech, gather my thoughts and most importantly how to breathe when the nerves threaten to take over. All this learning happens because everyone has a different role and goal every year or at every meeting. This year’s president can be all about having fun at the meetings, next year’s may want to work on achieving club goals to gain recognition in the wider Toastmaster community. One member’s role might be to chair the meeting; another’s goal to deliver a speech without displaying their nervousness.

Speakeasy Toastmasters still meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, come along and check it out.
Speakeasy toastmasters next meets at 8pm Hibernian Mallow, Thursday Jan 10th..
Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on our
blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com